by K. L. Morton
"Wait! Fae? Like fairies? And what is an Ora?" Emma was usually the first to ask questions.
"Yes, Fairies, but the Fae is far more than Fairies, there are many magical and beautiful creatures that reside there. And we are not Fairies, we are Fairon." Aarion spoke with a little impatience, he knew it was not going to be easy to uncloak the part of the humans minds that still believed that this was more like a story book than real life, he took another deep breath and spoke with a gentler voice. "The Ora is like our life force, it would be like your sun, but it does not give heat, or light up the sky, we still have the sun for that, but it keeps our realm protected from dark forces, it is also the source of our magical powers, we draw our magic from the Ora. Once the light of the Ora goes out.... so does our magic, and the ability for our realm to defend itself against the shadows that are threatening it."
"Once the light goes out, the magical wards that are cloaking our world from yours will come down, not only will our realm be revealed, but the darkness that will envelop our world will then spread to yours." Morthos added. There was a silence as Trinny, Emma and Lucille processed what they had just been told, Emma was about to speak but Lucille gave her a glance and spoke first.
"Okay, but what has my daughter got to do with a magical kingdom falling to darkness?"
Trinny's first thought was that her mother sounded like she was reading from one of her favorite fantasy books. Aarion looked at Trinny and then to her necklace.
"500 years ago, there was a great battle in our Realm, a powerful Empress tried to gain the power of the Ora so she could take over our two worlds, to do this she first annihilated a peaceful people, the only race that had the combined capability to destroy her. Her plan failed, as she did not know that three of the people whose realm she had destroyed were visiting our King at the time. When the Empress tried to take the Ora's powers, the Elementals combined their abilities of controlling Earth, Air and Fire to protect the Ora and destroy the Empress. But we did not know that she had gained powerful protection, so all these years she had been bound by the magic the Elementals had used, not killed. She is the one who has attacked again, and this time, she knows there are no Elementals left in our realm to save the Ora and defeat her, she is not strong enough yet to attack, but her strength grows as the Ora's weakens." Trinny was the first to speak.
"What happened to the Elementals, they were the three people visiting your King?"
Morthos answered her as he could see that Aarion's thoughts were elsewhere.
"Yes, the Elementals that were left made the decision to hide themselves in the mortal world, they gave up their immortality as they had no home to return to, they separated and made new lives for themselves." Aarion looked up at Trinny.
"But one line of elementals kept in touch with our realm, they had their suspicions that the Empress was not fully destroyed. Each generation would visit our realm to meet with our King and keep the connection between our worlds. Your father was the last elemental to do this, so the King sent us here to get you Trinity. We need you to help save our world!"
Emma stood up and smiled, she started looking around the room.
"I knew it!" She said and combed through her brown silky short hair with her fingers. "Are we being punked? Where are the cameras? Did my dad put you up to this?"
"Em sit down. It’s okay, they're telling the truth, I feel it, I have always felt it, always known that I was not the same as everyone else, my dad tried to tell me, but I just brushed it off." She had pulled Emma back down into her seat and directed her attention back to Aarion. "How did you know who I was?"
"We were not completely sure when we saw you on the beach today, but we knew when we saw you wearing the Earth Pendant of Cassis, it can only be worn by an Earth Elemental." He pointed to her necklace; it was still shimmering like a watery whirlpool under the surface.
"Earth Elemental? Is that what my dad was?"
"Yes, and that is what you are. You turned sixteen today, your full powers should start to mature now." Aarion looked at her more intensely. "Have you felt them?" Emma was sitting with her mouth hanging wide open, speechless for once in her life, and Lucille just looked at her daughter in a proud kind of way, like she knew this day was coming.
"I'm not really sure, I don't know what I should be able to do, is there a manual for this kind of thing?" Garus stifled a laugh and Aarion smiled.
"The Pendant will guide you. But we are wasting precious time, we still need to find two more of the Elementals, Air and Fire, you need to come with us. Now." Urgency was in Aarion's voice. Emma was suddenly woken from her shock.
"Now wait a minute, Trinny is not going anywhere without me."
"There is no way we can bring a mortal with us, it will be more dangerous!" Morthos declared.
"I understand your loyalty to your friend but you need to understand, we may not always be able to protect you, our priority is Trinity." Aarion spoke in an understanding voice.
"So is mine!" Declared Emma. Lucille looked at Trinny, who had been looking a little worried up till this point.
"I would feel a lot better if Trinny had someone with her too, I think you should let Emma go!" Trinny and Emma looked shocked at Lucille; parents were usually the first to say 'no,' not 'go.'
"I would feel happier if Emma was with me, this is all new to me and she does know how to bring the best out in me, maybe she can help." Trinny grabbed her friend’s hand and held it tight.
"Fine, as you wish." Aarion sounded tired. Morthos just rolled his eyes and Emma saw that Garus guy give her a wink and a smile. Lucille stood.
"I will cover for Emma with her parents, you girls should go pack a few things, I'll prepare you all a few snacks to take, just in case." Trinny looked at her mum with a new level of respect, she loved how she took life in her stride.
"No worries about the parents Mrs. Gaia, they are off to Bali for a week early tomorrow morning, I had already said my goodbyes, I'll text my brother and let him know I'll be staying here." Emma pulled Trinny up the stairs to gather their things.
CHAPTER FOUR
'And where two raging fires meet together, they do consume the thing that feeds their fury.' - William Shakespeare
It felt like they had been walking along the beach for hours, they were not near any streets or houses, so the only light in the darkness was from the partial crescent of the moon. Lucille had given her daughter the longest hug before they had left, and had handed over a large backpack filled with food for Morthos to carry, he tried to look put-out, but she could tell he was grateful. Garus was carrying a second, smaller backpack that had some plastic cups, water and a couple of flasks with hot coffee in. He was quite excited about this new drink; he questioned Trinny and Emma about it for the first half hour after they left, wanting to know where it came from and how exactly to make it. Trinny and Emma had packed small, light backpacks with a few essentials like a change of clothes, wind cheater jackets, light and tightly packed sleeping bags, torch, deodorant and lip-gloss, which was only on Emma’s insistence, 'you can never be sure when you might need it, who knows what kind of weather they may have, cracked lips are not attractive!' Trinny could see Emma's point, but wasn't that worried about it, she slipped it in her bag to make her friend feel better. She knew that Emma packed more than her, she wasn't really the outdoors type and Aarion had explained it would take a couple of days to get back to Taeith after they had found the other elementals.
"So how do we find the next elemental?" Emma asked casually, as if this was part of her normal everyday routine.
"She's in Ireland, we will use the Keitha to track her down." Aarion could see the confusion in Emma and Trinny's face. "The Keitha is a magic stone that can only be found deep beneath the earths soil directly under the Ora, it helps the holder to feel drawn to the powers of magical beings, this is how we tracked you down to the cafe Trinity."
"Can you call me Trinny, my dad was the only one who called me by my full name." Trinny asked.
&
nbsp; "As you wish.... Trinny." Aarion nodded at her respectfully. "He's very formal isn't he? He reminds me of that guy from 'The Princess Bride' movie, 'as you wish!" Emma said quietly to Trinny. "He isn't like the other two, Goliath there...." Motioning to Morthos, ".... he’s all warrior, protective and staunch like, and chicken legs..." Pointing at Garus as he stumbled on a piece of driftwood. "Yeah, he's just plain geeky, but in a good looking kind of way. And what's with that? They're all so good looking, I know the fairy books make the girl fairies all pretty but..." Emma was interrupted by Morthos strong voice calling back to them.
"We're here!"
"Don't we need to get to the airport or something to get to Ireland? And you didn't tell us to pack our passports." Emma called out to them.
"What are passports?" Garus looked at Emma with inquisitive eyes.
"They're documents that allow you to enter another country, isn't that what we're meant to be doing, going to another country?" Emma was giving him a schoolteacher look.
"We use the same magic we used to come into your realm from ours, it will take only moments to get there." As Aarion spoke he pulled from his pocket a tiny prism shaped object, holding it in his hand he directed it to a wall of rock that was protruding out from the sand dunes. Aarion seemed to whisper a word to the prism and a sudden spectrum of light dispersed from it, projecting onto the rock wall in a multitude of colors. Through the color spectrum they could see lush green fields and grey skies. "Go Morthos, check the way. Garus take Emma through, I will follow with Trinny." Morthos ran at the projected image on the rock wall, Garus grabbed Emma’s arm and pulled her after Morthos, she was not particularly happy about this and looked back at Trinny for help. They were all gone. Trinny looked at the wall and could see three figures in the distance on green grass, before she could speak Aarion had taken hold of her waist and pulled her towards the rock, she closed her eyes waiting for the pain of the rough wall, but to her relief she could only feel a cold wind whipping around her face and hair, she shivered and opened her eyes. Aarion’s warm arm was still around her and his hand was still on her waist, she could smell the scent of forest in his hair as the wind whipped it around toward her face. His hand felt warm and she didn't move away from him, he finally let go of her. "Sorry about the hasty arrival, once the Cipher starts it's magic we only have moments to move through the portal opening." He put the Cipher back in his pocket and started to walk towards a wall of stone that you could tell went for miles in both directions. It looked like it had been painstakingly hand built from river stones and been standing for hundreds of years.
"How many portals are there? Can anyone travel from place to place like that?" Trinny was fascinated.
"There are thousands of portal openings, but only someone with a Cipher can travel through them, there are only a handful left, and you must know the ancient language of the Elven people to use it." Morthos stated matter-of-factly. The fact they had just traveled thousands of miles in only moments via some magical device that was activated by some age old language was so surreal to Trinny, she felt like she was in a dream. She closed her eyes to re-focus and could smell wet grass mixed with the scent of salt water. She opened her eyes to see they were in a sloping field that had a few sheep huddled under a tree, there were rolling hills behind them and the sound of the ocean coming from in front of them. Morthos took out a perfectly round stone the color of Australian red earth. He closed his fingers over it in his palm and shut his eyes; Trinny thought this must be the Keitha they spoke of. Moments later he looked toward a small cottage near the edge of a cliff face, it was at least 10 minutes walk from where they were standing.
"There!" He pointed at the old cottage with its moss covered roof and chimney billowing with grey smoke. Emma and Trinny took off their backpacks and pulled out their wind cheaters which gave some relief from the cutting breeze, they were not used to cold like this, not even in their West Australian winters had they felt such bitter wind.
"I am freezing my butt off here, can we get moving?" Emma said with chattering teeth. Aarion, Garus and Morthos all looked at her perplexed for a moment then started to move toward the house, only Garus looked like he wanted to say something, but Morthos hit the back of his head like he knew that it was not going to be worth hearing. Trinny put her arm through Emma’s and they walked huddled up to try and keep warm.
As they reached the garden path that lead to the front door, they could hear a young woman’s voice in a thick Irish accent coming from inside the house.
"I know grandma, but he's an idiot, and I will not be seen with idiots...are you expecting visitors Gran?" She was standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window when she saw the five young people, what crazy people would be dressed like that in this freezing weather, she thought to herself. She walked to the front door and opened it. "Can I help you? Are you lost?"
"We are looking for Sinéad O'Rourke, does she live here?" Aarion asked the slim dark haired girl standing in the doorway. Her hair was cropped short and spiky but she had a long fringe that fell to the right side of her face with three wisps of fire engine red streaks. She wore faded blue skinny jeans and old black doc martin boots with steel caps. She had on a navy zip up hooded sweat shirt with two white strips down each sleeve and the words Notre Dame across the chest, Trinny thought this may have been her college team top. She must have been about twenty years old, but her fine features made it hard to tell.
"She does, she's in next to the fire where normal people would be on days like this, come in before you freeze to death." Even as she spoke the words, she could see the three young men did not seem affected by the cold, even though they were wearing thin white shirts, but the two teenage girls lips were turning blue. The red hair streaked girl opened the door wide and stepped aside for the five strangers to enter her house, she then lead them to the living area. Trinny and Emma could feel their fingers instantly starting to thaw from the heat of the roaring fire in the room. It was a quaint lounge, the room had an old cracked leather bound couch and two floral armchairs seated close to the fireplace. There was a coffee table with a lace tablecloth over it and beeswax candles in the center sitting on old mis-matched saucers, along side sat pretty teacups with steam coming off them. The warm dirt colored wall was covered in old framed photos. In one of the armchairs near the fire sat a stocky elderly lady with long grey hair pulled up into a bun on her head, but it did not make her face look severe like it would other ladies her age, her soft eyes and wrinkle strewn face were so welcoming. She wore a soft pink floral dress, brown leggings and a warm hand knitted green cardigan, and was reading a large tattered book. She turned to Aarion.
"Good day sons of Taeith."
"Greetings Sinéad, daughter of Cassis!" Aarion replied. Sinéad looked toward Trinny.
"You are your fathers daughter. He hid you well, and for good reason daughter of Earth!"
"You knew my dad?" Trinny was taken aback, she never knew her father had ever been to Ireland, but she was discovering that she didn't know a lot of things about him.
"Yes, he would visit every now and then, I was very sorry to hear of his death my dear." She gave Trinny a sad smile then directed her gaze back to Aarion. "There is only one reason 'sons of Taeith' would be paying me a visit. James theory was right about the Dark Empress, she has returned and you come for my help."
"Yes, we need three elementals to bind her power and save the Ora, it has been poisoned by Shadowdust." Aarion looked pleadingly at the elderly woman.
"Shadowdust, that is very old magic, my father would tell me that only someone with a pure heart of evil could obtain it from the pits of hell itself." She paused and looked thoughtful. "But alas, I am old and cannot call upon the elements the same as in my youth, but you can take my granddaughter Nina, she has been trained well."
"Grandma! What are you saying? There is no way I am going with these strangers and leaving you all alone here!" Nina had knelt down in front of her grandmother and had her hands on the rolled arms
of the chair. Sinéad looked lovingly at her granddaughter and placed her hand on her cheek, there seemed to be a slight red glow that was coming from her hand and reflecting light onto Nina's skin.
"Nina, all your life I have shared the history of our people with you and taught you how to harness your gifts. You were born for this; it's your destiny to help. The people of Taeith sheltered our ancestors in their darkest hour, we need to help in anyway we can." At that moment there was a loud thump on the roof of the house. Emma let out a scream of fright.
"Shhh!" Morthos hushed as his eyes diverted to the ceiling. There were sounds of something scuttering on the roof and they could hear roof tiles falling off. Then came the most terrifying noise, it was like a hundred voices had joined into one and were all screaming in terror. Everyone put their hands over their ears to try and block out the pain it was causing their eardrums. The scream stopped suddenly.
"Banshee!" Sinéad cried out. "You need to go now, take my granddaughter, keep her safe, I'll deal with the demon." A fierce look came across her face, like she was about to battle an old enemy.
"Grandma, I'm not leaving you here." Nina was pleading with her Grandmother.
"Take her now... I love you little flame. Now go!" Sinéad rose to her feet. Morthos took hold of Nina, who was fighting him with all she had; Garus pushed Trinny and Emma toward the exit. As Aarion opened the front door a part of the ceiling collapsed in the living room next to where Nina’s grandmother stood. Through the gapping hole came a whirl of black fabric, the room filled with a stench that was like rotten fish. There stood the figure of a woman seven feet tall with thin wispy black hair floating around her as if gravity did not exist there. The black tatty fabric of her long mourning dress did the same as her hair, it was like time had slowed around her. Her face was as white as winter’s first snow, and her skin was so thin you could see dark veins beneath it. Where her eyes should have been were empty holes like you were looking into a bottomless pit. She opened her mouth to reveal jagged glass-like shard teeth and screamed toward the others who were looking back in horror at the vile creature; they covered their ears again and crouched to the floor in pain. The Banshee's scream came to a halt as a ball of flames hit her. "GET OUT!" Yelled Sinéad, who was standing there with balls of fire sitting in the palms of her hands, ready to take another shot at the hideous monster that stood before her. Aarion dragged Trinny to her feet as Garus was helping up Emma; Morthos continued to hold Nina tight and was out the door first. Nina was still screaming for her grandmother and fighting the grip Morthos had on her with all her might.